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This is Rydell Markos reporting live from the Tri-Gem Sector with an update on the recent zoo releases.
Recall that six months ago an accident in the United Planets Intergalactic Zoo resulted in the accidental release of three so-called "Space Sharks" and the deaths of sixteen zoo employees. These "Sharks" have since gone on a rampage, causing the deaths of thousands. As we have followed this story, the Terran Alliance has amassed a large fleet under Admiral Kirk Hammond to combat this menace. Though the fleet is about to go into battle, Admiral Hammond has graciously granted us a quick question and answer.
"Good Evening Terra, this is Admiral Hammond."
Admiral Hammond, can you give us some details about the foe you are about to defeat?
"Certainly Rydell. The targets in question, "Space Sharks," are a known threat to shipping. Approximately six hundred meters in length, they employ a variety of means to hunt their silicon-based prey. Capable of moving at 14.4c for up to six days at a time, coupled with their unusual "quantum blink" technique, they can appear to move vast distances literally in the wink of an eye. After the horrific destruction of the Tri-Gem Starbase and it's support fleets, we knew this enemy was going to require all the resources of Terra to face it."
Yes, the Freedom Fleet. Admiral, can you tell us what this fleet consists of?
"From my perspective on the bridge of the Terran Harbinger I can see most of the fleet from right here. Allow your viewers to link to my eye-feed and we'll take a look.
On our left and upper flanks you can see the 11 Battle Cruisers from the Sol and Frontier Sectors, bolstered by the Beryl Sector fleet. On the fore and lower flank you can see the 8 Corvettes of the Home Guards from Sol, Alexander, Frontier, Beryl, Illum, and Hematite.
As you know, the first encounter with the escaped animals resulted in the loss of the Corvettes and Frigates of the Tri-Gem Sector. We have reviewed the eye-links from that battle and have devised a plan."
Excuse me Admiral, but you have left out those ships on the right.
"Ah yes, always tooting your own horn I see. Those six vessels represent the six major news and entertainment networks in Terran Space. Terra News, GNN, Wolf Entertainment, Yellow Journal, Harbinger News and Nebula Links. These vessels have been given unprecedented access to the battle scene. You folks at home will get a front row seat to the show, as it were."
>Admiral, three marks at North 16-23
"I will speak with you after the battle Rydell, enjoy the show!"
>Admiral, one mark has disappeared off the sensor grid.
Stay with us live as we remain eye-linked with our GNN feed ship.
***
Uh, the feed-ship is apparently suffering problems with it's transmitter. We go now live with the Wolf Entertainment feed.
'We are venting atmosphere right now. As you can see the incredible sight before us, all three of the sharks are gathered around. They took out GNN right away, and the one...pan right... further... there, uh, appears to be consuming the Yellow Journal, uh, wait a moment, wait...'
***
We're trying to get a live feed folks, and, oh my, uh, Jane, can we get that feed to our viewers...
We seem to be over the right shoulder of Admiral Hammond...
>Admiral, we seem to have lost the Crystal Shield and the Swiftflight.
"Group 6 envelopment left, LEFT! Damn it, pay attention, it's RIGHT THERE!"
>...Left side, left side, fire torps, go go....
"Weapons, fire to sector 37-12 south, firewall spread, coordinate with anyone left in Group 2."
>Group 1 signal lost, we caught that one with two 220s and a 640 along with a photon spread.
"Comms, status? Who's left? And... damn it tactical give me an update on their positions...I can see one with my eyes right there!"
Uh, viewers, the camera movement is unintentional, apparently something is attacking the Harbinger. We go now to the Alexander with a eye-link view.
>Captain Simon, the Admiral has gone offline.
'Weapons, coordinate burst, phasers to 640, I repeat max burst in web pattern. Torpedoes to ventral burst. Make it bleed.'
>It disappeared! It disappeared!
'Belay fire order! Give me a new solution! Where the hell is the Orion?'
>220 fire coming our way! 220s incoming!
'What the...they don't have ranged capability! They...'
***
Jane, get me a feed! Uh, we seem to be having some technical difficulties with our eye-link feed, and, and, uh, oh good Lord, my...what is this?
Mayday, mayday, this is Sargeant Green from the Eighty Star, I seem to have been blown clear...I can see no ships, uh, if anyone is eye-linked you may see the beasts, uh, one is wounded, I think, there is some scoring on the side. I, well, uh, Mayday, mayday, is there any ships left? Anyone?
Jane? Jane? Any feeds? Uh, not this one, it's got too much motion, and, oh Lord, it seems that the uh, well, the fleet seems to be gone. I can confirm now that the famed Survey Vessel Terran Harbinger is gone, and that wreckage over there seems to be one of the corvette squadrons that uh, well, there is from this link you can see all three sharks remain.
Can we bring up that Green fellow? Any links? Nothing's left? That's impossible! That's 21 ships...the entire Terran fleet! All we have left is our, oh Lord, we have a live message from President Alexander Tannis of the Terran Alliance.
"My fellow Terrans. Today is the darkest day in our spacefaring history. I, like yourselves and the rest of the galaxy, just watched the horrific destruction of our entire navy by escaped animals from the United Planets Zoo located at our system of Emerald. While pundits are flooding the net already with predictions of dire things, I would like to remind you all that the Terran people are strong. I have two minutes ago signed the Emergency Military Act converting all starship production to combat this menace. Engineers at Frontier and Alexander are already assembling a new class of vessel, the "Battleship," to combat this menace. I remind all citizens to remain calm and allow our government to work to eliminate this threat. Thank you and good day."
Ah, this concludes our eye-link of the containment excercise of the escaped animals. This eye-link is available for repeat viewing for 7 credits in Arcean or Alexian space, 8 credits in Yor space, and 12 credits elsewhere.
This is Rydell Markos for GNN.
Recall that six months ago an accident in the United Planets Intergalactic Zoo resulted in the accidental release of three so-called "Space Sharks" and the deaths of sixteen zoo employees. These "Sharks" have since gone on a rampage, causing the deaths of thousands. As we have followed this story, the Terran Alliance has amassed a large fleet under Admiral Kirk Hammond to combat this menace. Though the fleet is about to go into battle, Admiral Hammond has graciously granted us a quick question and answer.
"Good Evening Terra, this is Admiral Hammond."
Admiral Hammond, can you give us some details about the foe you are about to defeat?
"Certainly Rydell. The targets in question, "Space Sharks," are a known threat to shipping. Approximately six hundred meters in length, they employ a variety of means to hunt their silicon-based prey. Capable of moving at 14.4c for up to six days at a time, coupled with their unusual "quantum blink" technique, they can appear to move vast distances literally in the wink of an eye. After the horrific destruction of the Tri-Gem Starbase and it's support fleets, we knew this enemy was going to require all the resources of Terra to face it."
Yes, the Freedom Fleet. Admiral, can you tell us what this fleet consists of?
"From my perspective on the bridge of the Terran Harbinger I can see most of the fleet from right here. Allow your viewers to link to my eye-feed and we'll take a look.
On our left and upper flanks you can see the 11 Battle Cruisers from the Sol and Frontier Sectors, bolstered by the Beryl Sector fleet. On the fore and lower flank you can see the 8 Corvettes of the Home Guards from Sol, Alexander, Frontier, Beryl, Illum, and Hematite.
As you know, the first encounter with the escaped animals resulted in the loss of the Corvettes and Frigates of the Tri-Gem Sector. We have reviewed the eye-links from that battle and have devised a plan."
Excuse me Admiral, but you have left out those ships on the right.
"Ah yes, always tooting your own horn I see. Those six vessels represent the six major news and entertainment networks in Terran Space. Terra News, GNN, Wolf Entertainment, Yellow Journal, Harbinger News and Nebula Links. These vessels have been given unprecedented access to the battle scene. You folks at home will get a front row seat to the show, as it were."
>Admiral, three marks at North 16-23
"I will speak with you after the battle Rydell, enjoy the show!"
>Admiral, one mark has disappeared off the sensor grid.
Stay with us live as we remain eye-linked with our GNN feed ship.
***
Uh, the feed-ship is apparently suffering problems with it's transmitter. We go now live with the Wolf Entertainment feed.
'We are venting atmosphere right now. As you can see the incredible sight before us, all three of the sharks are gathered around. They took out GNN right away, and the one...pan right... further... there, uh, appears to be consuming the Yellow Journal, uh, wait a moment, wait...'
***
We're trying to get a live feed folks, and, oh my, uh, Jane, can we get that feed to our viewers...
We seem to be over the right shoulder of Admiral Hammond...
>Admiral, we seem to have lost the Crystal Shield and the Swiftflight.
"Group 6 envelopment left, LEFT! Damn it, pay attention, it's RIGHT THERE!"
>...Left side, left side, fire torps, go go....
"Weapons, fire to sector 37-12 south, firewall spread, coordinate with anyone left in Group 2."
>Group 1 signal lost, we caught that one with two 220s and a 640 along with a photon spread.
"Comms, status? Who's left? And... damn it tactical give me an update on their positions...I can see one with my eyes right there!"
Uh, viewers, the camera movement is unintentional, apparently something is attacking the Harbinger. We go now to the Alexander with a eye-link view.
>Captain Simon, the Admiral has gone offline.
'Weapons, coordinate burst, phasers to 640, I repeat max burst in web pattern. Torpedoes to ventral burst. Make it bleed.'
>It disappeared! It disappeared!
'Belay fire order! Give me a new solution! Where the hell is the Orion?'
>220 fire coming our way! 220s incoming!
'What the...they don't have ranged capability! They...'
***
Jane, get me a feed! Uh, we seem to be having some technical difficulties with our eye-link feed, and, and, uh, oh good Lord, my...what is this?
Mayday, mayday, this is Sargeant Green from the Eighty Star, I seem to have been blown clear...I can see no ships, uh, if anyone is eye-linked you may see the beasts, uh, one is wounded, I think, there is some scoring on the side. I, well, uh, Mayday, mayday, is there any ships left? Anyone?
Jane? Jane? Any feeds? Uh, not this one, it's got too much motion, and, oh Lord, it seems that the uh, well, the fleet seems to be gone. I can confirm now that the famed Survey Vessel Terran Harbinger is gone, and that wreckage over there seems to be one of the corvette squadrons that uh, well, there is from this link you can see all three sharks remain.
Can we bring up that Green fellow? Any links? Nothing's left? That's impossible! That's 21 ships...the entire Terran fleet! All we have left is our, oh Lord, we have a live message from President Alexander Tannis of the Terran Alliance.
"My fellow Terrans. Today is the darkest day in our spacefaring history. I, like yourselves and the rest of the galaxy, just watched the horrific destruction of our entire navy by escaped animals from the United Planets Zoo located at our system of Emerald. While pundits are flooding the net already with predictions of dire things, I would like to remind you all that the Terran people are strong. I have two minutes ago signed the Emergency Military Act converting all starship production to combat this menace. Engineers at Frontier and Alexander are already assembling a new class of vessel, the "Battleship," to combat this menace. I remind all citizens to remain calm and allow our government to work to eliminate this threat. Thank you and good day."
Ah, this concludes our eye-link of the containment excercise of the escaped animals. This eye-link is available for repeat viewing for 7 credits in Arcean or Alexian space, 8 credits in Yor space, and 12 credits elsewhere.
This is Rydell Markos for GNN.
I am good, the Yor and Torians are neutral....I beat them both up in a war and now they both are friends, but the Torians really don't like me.
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